Bengal truckers call indefinite truck strike from April 1 midnight

Kolkata: Federation of West Bengal Truck Operators` Association today announced that they will join the nationwide indefinite stir called by All India Motor Transport Congress from April 1.

Announcing this here after meeting the state`s Transport Minister Madan Mitra, FWBTOA general secretary Satyajit Majumdar said they had waited before taking this decision to see what steps the state transport department would take.

"However, no action has been taken till now even though the state`s transport minister had assured to look into their matter," Majumdar said.

The minister had requested them to not participate in the stir saying it will have adverse reaction on people and economy.

Majumdar said that they have been facing quite a few problems for which they have decided to start holding an indefinite strike from April 1 midnight joining hands with AITMC, which have already called a nationwide stir from the same date.

He alleged the government was not taking any initiative to stop overloading in trucks and that the transport department was illegally collecting revenues from truckers for overloading of goods.

The truck owners were also facing problems to get or renew their licences and also to sell their vehicles if necessary due to the new rules that the motor vehicles department have introduced, Majumdar said.

Apart from demanding to stop overloading, problems with motor vehicles, police harassment, immediate repair of roads, they also demanded immediate withdrawal of hike in third party insurance premium.